Jess Carroll, left, and Cameron Rivers in "Desire," by Joshua Natoli and John Lyden

Jess Carroll, left, and Cameron Rivers in "Desire," by Joshua Natoli and John Lyden

Image 6 of 30

A still from "Lucky" by Kagan Marks

A still from "Lucky" by Kagan Marks

Image 7 of 30

The band Immaculate Heart in "Silent Films" by Derick Noetzel. From left: Mike Barranco, Brandon Powers-Green and Tom Baxter.

The band Immaculate Heart in "Silent Films" by Derick Noetzel. From left: Mike Barranco, Brandon Powers-Green and Tom Baxter.

Image 8 of 30

A still from "A Van Dyck Ghost Story" by Michael Hidinger

A still from "A Van Dyck Ghost Story" by Michael Hidinger

Image 9 of 30

A still from "Brave: A Documentary" by Kelly Pfeister

A still from "Brave: A Documentary" by Kelly Pfeister

Image 10 of 30

Derick Noetzel, who made "Silent Films by Immaculate Heart" (Photo by Bonnie Mason)

Derick Noetzel, who made "Silent Films by Immaculate Heart" (Photo by Bonnie Mason)

Image 11 of 30

Joshua Natoli, co-director of "Desire" and star of "Forgiven"

Joshua Natoli, co-director of "Desire" and star of "Forgiven"

Image 12 of 30

Liz Richards, communications instructor at the College of Saint Rose and chair of the "15 Minutes Max" short film festival

Liz Richards, communications instructor at the College of Saint Rose and chair of the "15 Minutes Max" short film festival

Image 13 of 30

Brandon Powers-Green in a still from Derrick Noetzel's "Silent Films by Immaculate Heart"

Brandon Powers-Green in a still from Derrick Noetzel's "Silent Films by Immaculate Heart"

Image 14 of 30

A screen shot from Kelly Pfeister's "Brave"

A screen shot from Kelly Pfeister's "Brave"

Image 15 of 30

A still from "Lucky"

A still from "Lucky"

Image 16 of 30

Michael Hidinger, who made "A Van Dyck Ghost Story"

Michael Hidinger, who made "A Van Dyck Ghost Story"

Image 17 of 30

Kelly Pfeister, who made "Brave: A Documentary" (Photo by Melanie LeDuc)

Kelly Pfeister, who made "Brave: A Documentary" (Photo by Melanie LeDuc)

Photo: KP

Image 18 of 30

Kagan Marks, who made "Lucky." (Photo credit: Carolyn Lewon)

Kagan Marks, who made "Lucky." (Photo credit: Carolyn Lewon)

Image 19 of 30

Nick Longo's "Cold Water"

Nick Longo's "Cold Water"

Image 20 of 30

Nick Longo, who made "Cold Water" (Photo by Kevin Jadick)

Nick Longo, who made "Cold Water" (Photo by Kevin Jadick)

Image 21 of 30

Josh Natoli in John Lyden's "Forgiven"

Josh Natoli in John Lyden's "Forgiven"

Image 22 of 30

Josh Natoli and Attarva Agashe in "Forgiven," directed by John Lyden

Josh Natoli and Attarva Agashe in "Forgiven," directed by John Lyden

Image 23 of 30

Jess Carroll, left, and Cameron Rivers in "Desire," by Josh Natoli and John Lyden

Jess Carroll, left, and Cameron Rivers in "Desire," by Josh Natoli and John Lyden

Image 24 of 30

Cameron Rivers in "Desire," by Josh Natoli and John Lyden

Cameron Rivers in "Desire," by Josh Natoli and John Lyden

Image 25 of 30

John Lyden, who directed "Forgiven" and co-directed "Desire"

John Lyden, who directed "Forgiven" and co-directed "Desire"

Image 26 of 30

A still from "Forgiven" by John Lyden

A still from "Forgiven" by John Lyden

Image 27 of 30

Shawn Dixon, who made "Brother's Keeper"

Shawn Dixon, who made "Brother's Keeper"

Image 28 of 30

Frank Appio, left, with his brother, Zach. Frank directed, Zach edited and they both produced "Baby Monitor."

Frank Appio, left, with his brother, Zach. Frank directed, Zach edited and they both produced "Baby Monitor."

Image 29 of 30

Jennifer Lefsyk in a scene from Frank and Zach Appio's "Baby Monitor"

Jennifer Lefsyk in a scene from Frank and Zach Appio's "Baby Monitor"

Image 30 of 30

Selected shorts

1 / 30

Back to Gallery

A soldier haunted by guilt, a nightclub haunted by ghosts. A cartoon trash bin that links to a magic land. A music video that unfolds in one take. A memoir of being assaulted. A snapshot of addiction. Two scary movies, one spilling blood in the woods, one set in a house with a crying baby. A study of surfers braving winter. And a romantic comedy, if that's the term, about a man who just might be in love with his car.

These are the films lined up for "15 Minutes Max," The College of Saint Rose's annual short film festival, which is set to unspool its 10 finalists at 5 p.m. Friday at Albany's Madison Theatre. The juried festival, founded in 2012 and co-sponsored by the Times Union, expanded beyond Saint Rose this year to include submissions from undergraduate and graduate students at institutions of higher learning within a 50-mile radius. (Full disclosure: I was a judge.)

"This year, I feel like we tried to up the game a little bit," said Liz Richards, visiting instructor of communications and chair of the festival. "We really wanted to reach out beyond the Saint Rose community — to make this more of a community event."

The result "was a big jump" in submissions: from 11 last year to 40 this year, she said. The finalists include eight from Saint Rose, one from Bennington College and one from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — the origin of "The Baby Monitor," a short, sharp chiller directed by Frank Appio and edited by his brother and fellow RPI student Zach. They both produced it.

More Information

"A few years ago, I was taking care of my grandmother while she was ill — this was before she passed — and we had been using a baby monitor," Frank Appio said. At the time, he and his brother both noted the innate spookiness of the device. "You get these creepy static noises from it.' And we said, 'This would be a great way to build suspense.'"

The festival winners, not yet announced, will receive cash prizes ranging from $100 to $500. "I'm keeping that information close to the chest, so it's a surprise for everybody," Richards said.

Several of the "15 Minutes Max" finalists are former students of hers — or otherwise familiar faces in the communications arm at Saint Rose. Derick Noetzel, a film and media major, is the student equipment manager for the department. His contribution to the festival, "Silent Films," is a seamless, atmospheric music video shot in a barn attic with the student indie-folk band Immaculate Heart.

"We just took one long shot over and over and over again, so each take of the video was one long take. So there are no cuts or anything. Which is something that, as far as I know, doesn't happen" too often in the creation of music videos, he said. "It's usually all flashy movements and cutting ... and we wanted to make it more organic and real."

A downside to that realism: the weather. They filmed it in March, "And it was very, very cold, so I think we only had, like, seven tries. Yeah, we didn't really dress for the occasion."

Noetzel is one of several finalists shooting for a career in video or film. "My biggest dream is to be a filmmaker, but what I need is I need to branch out a lttle bit more. ... I'm just trying to get my practice doing music videos and smaller projects," he said.

Confessing that same dream is John Lyden, a May graduate from Saint Rose with two movies in the festival: "Forgiven," which he directed and co-wrote, and "Desire," which he co-wrote and co-directed with Joshua Natoli.

Natoli stars in "Forgiven," a fictional, affecting study of a young veteran wracked by guilt. "Desire," meanwhile, is a lightly twisted look at a young man who appears to prefer his car to human-female companionship. (And it's not even much of a car.)

Lyden said he aimed for ambiguity, with "Forgiven" especially." "I think it really enhances a film, to some degree, if the audience can interpret it themselves, if they can have their own response to it." Being included in the festival "definitely makes me feel like I guess I'm doing something right. It definitely builds up my confidence a little bit."

Of the 10 finalists, one of them, "Lucky," is a bit of animated whimsy about a magical Dumpster dive. Another one, "Addicts," is a "poetic documentary photo roman" (Richards' words) addressing addiction. Three are documentaries: "Cold Water," a surfing movie; "A Van Dyck Ghost Story," about an eerie brush with a spectral presence; and "Brave," Kelly Pfeister's memoir of being attacked in Albany the week after returning from a summer internship at an English film studio. Assembled from pictures of her own feet that she snapped on the streets of London, the movie outlines, in aching emotional detail, the shock and pain of losing control in an instant.

"I had taken so many photos of my feet walking around London and then, when I got attacked, I didn't walk for months," she said. "I thought it was really interesting. It was ironic that I had taken these photos."

She made the film for one of Richards' classes and is "really excited" to be included in the Friday lineup. "I'm also scared. Because it's just a vulnerable thing, such a private thing. ... I'm usually very happy-go-lucky, and I don't usually talk about serious things," said Pfeister, who, like Lyden, graduated Saint Rose in May. The hardest part "was to sit down every day and go through it and kind of edit. And that was tough."

After "The Baby Monitor," the second horror flick in the lineup is "Brother's Keeper," Saint Rose senior Shawn Dixon's short, bloody yarn about two brothers on a camping trip. He shot it as a final project for a class. Previously, he said, he'd made a serious drama, "and I wanted to do something a little bit more fun, just for entertainment purposes. A little bit more — I don't want to say 'campier' — but a little more humorous side to it, along with the horror elements."

Filmed in the Kingston area, the film features two of Dixon's cousins and one brother. Not all of them meet a happy end. Stage blood flows. A lot of it.

"Oh, I didn't measure how much I used, but all the ingredients were at Shop Rite. You basically just use corn syrup with some food coloring, and you mix in some chocolate syrup. It's actually edible," Dixon explained. "It tastes like cake topping."